For my first blog post, I wanted to get real and raw with you guys. So here is an insight into my own struggles with food and body image and the things that have helped me along the way. I hope to inspire you to break the diet cycle, to reconnect with your body and to start enjoying food again.
Have you ever experienced struggles with your weight? Non hungry eating? Emotional eating? Comparing yourself to others? Disliking your body shape or size? Endlessly trying different diets? Do you find yourself obsessing over food and feeling stressed about what to eat? Do you have negative thoughts around food? Negative thoughts about yourself?
YOU ARE NOT ALONE!!!
This is one of the most common challenges that I see with my clients. Not only have I come across this more times than I can count, I have also personally experienced this during my own food and health journey. When studying to be a Dietitian, I learnt about all of the strategies to help support people to make healthy food choices and to create healthier eating patterns. I felt a lot of pressure at the time to be the perfect role model and I started becoming quite self conscious and anxious around food and eating. I was trying to be this 'perfect' person, eating 'perfectly' and becoming obsessive with food. It wasn't long until feelings of guilt started creeping in, and I realised that the 'perfect' person or the 'perfect' eater was unattainable and unrealistic. Little did I know, that I was the one struggling with my own relationship with food and ultimately with myself. It took some real soul searching and self reflection to recognise my own struggles and to make the first step towards a positive change.
Over the past few years working as Dietitian, I have noticed how common these issues are in our society, especially for women. We are born and raised within this diet culture which is normalised. But it is NOT NORMAL and definitely NOT HEALTHY FOR US. I see so many people striving for 'perfection' with their diet, eating patterns and their bodies. Striving for this ideal 'thin' body shape and letting the numbers on the scale dictate their happiness and self-worth. If this sounds like you, it's time to start the healing process, let go of the guilt and stop fighting yourself. I started this blog to inspire you to rediscover your enjoyment of food and eating, ditch the diets and to start feeling more comfortable in your own skin.
These are the mantras that have worked for my clients and also for myself!
My mantras:
ALL foods fit approach - each in their own quantity and frequency. NO FOOD IS OFF LIMITS. All foods are morally neutral and NO FOOD IS ‘BAD’
Mindful or intuitive eating - a natural way to start reconnecting with your body and learning to trust your body
Ditch the diets - if you are in the 'diet' mindset then you are stuck in the diet cycle and you need to break this
Take the focus off WHAT you are eating and shift the focus to WHY you are eating this way. We need to put as much energy into addressing these underlying factors/core issues in order to start the process of moving forward
Get off the guilt train - remove the judgment from eating certain foods, don’t write off the whole day or the whole week if you’ve eaten something less healthy for your body. Accept that you’ve eaten this food, remove the guilt, recognise the reasons why and keep moving forward on your health journey
Sustainable changes - our eating patterns differ each day and this a natural part of eating. Consistency is key, making small and sustainable changes from your day to day routine will make the biggest impact long term
Have a holistic approach - don’t only focus on your eating patterns, this is like reading only one single page in your whole book. It's important to find balance in all areas of your life eg. finding joyful ways to move your body, getting enough good quality sleep, managing your stress levels, balancing your mood and overall well-being (others may include hormonal balance and pain management).
Full disclosure: addressing other areas of your life that may be impacting on your eating patterns is REALLY important. If you’re not sure where to start, the best place is talking to a health professional that you trust. Having enough support throughout this process is vital. Please feel free to reach out and contact me if you would like to chat more! You can also chat to your GP to be linked in with your local Dietitian or Psychologist.
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